COSON TO BUHARI: SPARK INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY REVOLUTION NOW

We ask for a Nigeria driven by knowledge and creativity. We want a nation where a creative songwriter can depend on his creativity and live well; a good performer does not have to worry about how to feed his family; a talented filmmaker or actor will not be burdened by where his next rent will come from; a gifted author can become a millionaire and does not have to sweat at the thought of his children’s school fees and a fashion designer with a unique style can be celebrated for his or her creativity

Emmanuel Ukudolo

Nigeria, Sept.02, 2016 – The Copyright Society of Nigeria (COSON) has called on President Muhammadu Buhari to spark an intellectual property revolution to save Nigeria out of the economic mess and alight it with progressive economies around the world.

Chairman of COSON, Chief Tony Okoroji made the call while speaking on “Monetization of Musical Content in the Digital Space” as part of efforts to mark ‘NO MUSIC DAY’.

“As we mark No Music Day, we once again call on President Muhammadu Buhari to spark an intellectual property and creative revolution in Nigeria.

“This is necessary to dig the Nigerian nation out of the economic hole in which we find ourselves and align our economy with progressive economies around the world”, he said and called for a Nigeria where people of wealth are no longer those who have brazenly stolen the people’s wealth or scammed them of what rightfully belongs to them.

“We ask for a Nigeria driven by knowledge and creativity. We want a nation where a creative songwriter can depend on his creativity and live well; a good performer does not have to worry about how to feed his family; a talented filmmaker or actor will not be burdened by where his next rent will come from; a gifted author can become a millionaire and does not have to sweat at the thought of his children’s school fees and a fashion designer with a unique style can be celebrated for his or her creativity.

“We ask for a Nigeria in which a great photographer can be a man of means; an architect does not also have to be a builder to earn commensurate income from his talent; an inventor can live off his invention and a creator of content can thrive from the deployment of his content. We earnestly ask for a Nigeria in which a lecturer is no longer ashamed to say that he teaches for a living. In other words, we demand a nation in which knowledge and creativity are celebrated”, he said.

Okoroji said President Muhammadu Buhari can give a marching order to both his Vice President, Prof Yemi Osinbajo who has the training and the intellect to fully grasp the issues and Minister of Foreign Affairs, Mr Geoffrey Onyeama who for several years was a respected Director at the World Intellectual Property Organization(WIPO) to create real change in Nigeria.

“These gentlemen have the ability to kick start an intellectual property and creative revolution in our country, which can change the story of Nigeria forever. Then we can inspire our citizens to create and invent things of value with the assurance that every creativity and invention will be protected by the nation and every creator and inventor can enjoy the fruits of his or her labour. We will then have taken a major step in assuring domestic and international investors that Nigeria is no longer a nation of ‘monkey dey work, baboon dey chop’ and that we are ready for the knowledge and digital economy”, he said.

Okoroji called for private copy levy, zero tolerance for intellectual property, acknowledging that Nigeria’s telecommunication giant, Airtel had been exceptional by making provision to comply with her copyright obligations to COSON.

He called on the Minister for Information and Culture, Alhaji Lai Muhammed to make it clear to government owned broadcast stations to comply with their copyright obligations. He also called on Broadcasting Organisations of Nigeria (BON) and Independent Broadcasters Association of Nigeria (IBAN) to act responsibly by respecting agreement it entered with COSON.

COSON also called on the National Assembly to make budgetary provisions for government owned broadcasting stations to be able to pay royalty on use of music.

Okoroji called on National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA) to take down all pirate websites that upload musical content without paying royalty for reaping from works of artistes. He also called for creation of National Endowment Fund for the Art.

Then we can inspire our citizens to create and invent things of value with the assurance that every creativity and invention will be protected by the nation and every creator and inventor can enjoy the fruits of his or her labour. We will then have taken a major step in assuring domestic and international investors that Nigeria is no longer a nation of ‘monkey dey work, baboon dey chop’ and that we are ready for the knowledge and digital economy

PRIVATE COPY LEVY

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President Buhari should order the Hon Minister of Finance and the Attorney-General of the Federation to ensure the full implementation of the Private Copy Levy scheme without any further delay.

It is our belief that the Private Copy Levy Scheme enshrined in Section 40 of the Nigerian Copyright Act needs to be brought to full implementation without any further stories. The scheme which for many years has been in operation in several countries around the world, including some in our sub region, is intended to provide badly needed cushion for the stakeholders in the creative industry suffering from the unbridled copying and downloading of creative materials made possible by modern technology. With the scheme in full operation, the government will no longer need to give money to individuals or associations in the creative sector because they can earn their own money.

We are aware that the required order to activate the Private Copy levy scheme was made by the immediate past Attorney-General of the Federation & Minister of Justice and published in the Federal Gazette. The necessary follow up to get the Nigerian Customs and the Nigerian Copyright Commission to activate the scheme has not taken place for no reason that we can understand. We therefore call on President Buhari to give the directives without further delay.

ZERO TOLERANCE FOR THEFT OF INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY

The Nigerian Communications Commission should make it very clear to all telecommunications companies operating in Nigeria that henceforth, there will be zero tolerance for the infringement of the Intellectual Property rights of Nigerian citizens whose works are deployed by these companies.

It is now well known that COSON has had to go to court against the major telecommunications operators in Nigeria to assert the rights of a key group of stakeholders in the Nigerian music industry to be remunerated for their works which are generating billions of Naira for the telephone operators as a result of the deployment of the works on the operators’ Caller Ring Back Tuneplatforms, Down load platforms, Streaming platforms, Internet Radio platforms, Road shows, concerts, etc.

AIRTEL COMPLIES WITH INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY OBLIGATION
We wish to state that one of the operators, specifically Airtel Nigeria has taken appropriate steps to comply with the requirements of the law and international practice with respect to meeting the organization’s Intellectual Property obligations for the musical works and sound recordings on its platforms.
If the Nigerian Communications Commission will not protect Nigerian creators, let it be made very clear today that COSON will not waiver or abdicate its duty until every telecommunication operator in Nigeria fully understands that it cannot rob Peter to make money for itself.

ALL BROADCAST STATIONS MUST PAY ROYALTY
The Honourable Minister of Information & Culture and the different state governors should make it clear to all Federal Government and State owned broadcasting stations respectively, and other government institutions that there is no provision of the law that exempts them from the payment of royalties for the musical content broadcast or deployed by them.

BON/IBAN MUST ACT RESPONSIBLY

We will all recall that in 2014, the Nigerian music and broadcasting industries signed the historic COSON/BON/IBAN/NBC/NCC music copyright agreement after several decades of seemingly endless quarrel. We are however sad that despite the substantially reduced tariffs and the public pledge of the broadcasting industry to keep to the terms of the COSON/BON/IBAN/NBC/NCC agreement, most of the stations owned by the Federal and State governments have continued to breach the agreement.

COSON is therefore constrained to call on the Honourable Minister of Information & Culture, state governors, NBC and the leaderships of both BON and IBAN to compel their members to act responsibly and meet their obligations without further delay.

NASS MUST BUDGET FOR PAYMENT OF ROYALTIES
We also once again call on the National and State Assemblies to ensure that clear provisions are made in the budgets of the different government owned broadcast stations and other organizations for the payment of copyright royalties. We refuse to accept a situation where the organizations continue with the open stealing of the intellectual property of innocent creative people simply because ‘there is no budget’ for the payment for the key raw material they deploy in their operations while the same people are required to pay tax.

NITDA MUST TAKE DOWN PIRATE WEBSITES
The National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA)should, as a matter of urgency be ordered to take necessary steps to begin the take down of the several pirate websites bastardizing Nigerian Intellectual Property on the Internet.

ACT SWIFTLY
President Buhari should instruct the Ministers of Industry, Trade & Investment, and Foreign Affairs to act swiftly to ensure that the brazen and massive piracy of Nigerian music, movies and literature across our continent will no longer be tolerated.

The Nigerian Copyright Commission should be empowered to pivot towards the effective implementation of anti-piracy measures in the digital environment.

The National Assembly should act with despatch to ensure the promulgation into law of the new Copyright Bill which contains several provisions to properly deal with the infringement of copyright in the digital era.

NATIONAL ENDOWNMENT FUND FOR THE ARTS
We also call on the government to act without further delay to get the National Endowment Fund for the Arts up and running so that there are resources to take care of funding for creative projects and the welfare of creative people who have fallen into hard times.